In the English fandom, the term bishōnen simply connotes "a really, really attractive male", but in its original usage, it refers to a specific type of attractiveness that is found in adolescents. The cutoff for bishōnen in the strict sense is around 20 years old. Beyond this age, the Japanese describe male attractiveness through terms like biseinen or bidanshi ("beautiful man") or ikemen (roughly "good-looking guy"). The affectionate English fandom shorthand "bishie" bypasses the lexical issues somewhat. Examples of both bishōnen and biseinen should be placed on this page. Likely to have drawn on a moe aesthetic when they were younger.

The comparable Korean concept is kkot-minam ("flower pretty boy"). The most similar Western type is Pretty Boy.

The appearance and behavior of the archetypal bishōnen is often used to explore sexuality and gender norms. Thus, Yaoi Guys have a tendency to be this.

Originally, bishōnen characters were the province of shoujo and Boys Love Genres, but since the mid-90s, it has become the default style for teenage boys in pretty much any work looking for a cross-demographic audience. Since more modern anime and manga are overwhelming geared towards appealing to both men and women in this respect, a large majority of virtually all mainstream works will feature at least one bishōnen character, if not more. Also the farther bishōnen characters disseminate from their source genres, the less likely it becomes that there will be in-universe mention of their androgynous looks/attractiveness.

Contrast Gonk, The Grotesque, and Puni Plush. Also contrast Hunk which can nonetheless cross over with this trope, such as for Vega from Street Fighter. Pretty girls are known as Bishoujo ("beautiful girl"), but the esthetics of bishoujo are different, typically emphasizing cute, petite femininity rather than sleek androgyny. See Bifauxnen for ladies who conform a bit more closely to the bishōnen aesthetic. Not to be confused with the Bishonen Line.

Examples:

This is an East Asian media only trope. For pretty boys in other cultures see Pretty Boy.note The difference is primarily cultural, and it is not at all uncommon for Animesque media to use this trope much in the same way as the examples here, but for convenience's sake, let's just put the Eastern ones here and the Western ones there.

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Anime & Manga

There are so many examples in anime and manga that they're being put in their own section.

Akira from Ai Ore Love is so bishonen he can pass as a girl, and Even the Guys Want Him. A majority of the men in the series are bishonen.

In AKIRA, there's Kai, aka Kaisuke, who's short, slim, well-dressed, girlishly faced, and can knock a guy through a window. Being relatively sensitive and apparently crushing on Kaneda in the manga and Yamagata in the anime, he's often perceived as a young homosexual.

Many characters in Axis Powers Hetalia are actually mislabeled as this (and the fanart doesn't help); the art style is very Puni Plush, thus the majority of the male designs are simply moe. The ones that aren't moe usually fall more into the hunk category (and even then, there's overlap) and there's even a few bara-type characters, such as Turkey. The purest bishounen in the series would be Austria.

Huey Laforet from Baccano! takes this to the point of confusing people in-universe (you know you look girly when one of the prettiest woman in the series is your nigh-identical adult daughter, and you know you look really girly when you are not mistaken for beautiful women, but beautiful women are mistaken for you). Firo, while never being mistaken for a woman like Huey has, has been mocked by a detective in the Light Novels for skewing quite close to the Uke aesthetic. Claire Stanfield, aka. Rail Tracer, also fits. Jacuzzi also fits, although he has that giant tattoo on his face.

Griffith from Berserk is explicitly labeled as "too beautiful to be a man" in about a dozen separate chapters by different characters! He even wears lipstick after transforming into Femto. All this as contrast to Guts◊ the manliest of men .

Every male character in Black Bird, but especially Kyo, whom Misao mistakes for a pretty girl upon seeing him as an adult.

A good amount of the male characters from Black Butler. Except for Baron Kelvin, who realizes this and is obsessed with "becoming beautiful", Georg von Siemens, Jumbo, Lord Arthur Randall, Azzurro Vanel, Fred Aberline, Damian, and Doctor.

Ayasegawa Yumichika is defined by his connection with beauty. Not only in looks but in lifestyle, too. He even accepted a lower rank in his squad than he had to because he thought that, in kanji, the number 5 was more "beautiful" than 4.

Byakuya Kuchiki is very bishonen and is often voted "Seireitei's Sexiest Male Shinigami" by the Shinigami Women's Institute.

Ishida Uryuu has a very slender, delicate build and an exceptionally fair complexion for a male character. He takes after his father Ryuuken, who is a Silver Fox, and who was his school's heartthrob when he was Uryuu's age.

The end of chapter 670 gives us our young Toshiro Hitsugaya all grown up so he can use the full potential of his Bankai.

Jugram Haschwalth of Vandenreich is one HELL of a bishounen. He is tall, slim, pale and pretty. He is also a Long-Haired Pretty Boy since he is shown to have hip-length blond hair and long eyelashes. He looks delicate but he could stand within close proximity of Yamamoto's bankai without flinching

In Brave10, there are handsome guys galore. Saizo, Sasuke, Kamanosuke, Hanzo, young Seikai, and grown-up Benmaru are all very pretty, but the inarguable winner is Rokuro, who is so good-looking he gets called things like "the handsome page" "the beautiful lad" and just plain "bishonen" instead of his name at various points. Rokuro, of course, thinks his features are very manly.

Ema's thirteen stepbrothers in Brothers Conflict. Wataru might not count yet, considering the fact that's he's only 10, but will likely grow into this trope when older.

Joshua Christopher is the most obvious example from the series—he's quite thin (even implied to look underweight at one point), has pale blond hair and blue eyes, and looks quite a bit like his sister.

Aion is a bit more borderline—he's actually quite muscular when he takes off his Badass Long Coat, but his long, white hair does a lot to give him an edge of androgynous beauty. He's maybe a bit more of a biseinen.

Chrono is a tricky one. In his true form, he's a bit rough around the edges and his outfit goes out of the way to highlight his muscular chest, but in his Sleep-Mode Size, he's got longer hair and looks much younger (and thus cuter). However, he still has moments of looking quite pretty in his true form, and a flashback in the manga shows him with long hair, which definitely qualifies him.

Even Claymore manages to have one of these in the cast: Isley of the North.

Ryuk was this in his original design◊, before the creators decided that him looking more interesting than Light could cause fans to ignore Light's character.

Rem in the live-action films. Despite being a female Shinigami in the manga and anime, she was made a male in-voice-only for the live-action movies. The rest of her feminine looking design◊ is kept exactly the same.

Allen from D.Gray-Man definitely fits here, seeing as he's prettier than a lot of the girls in the series. Lavi, Tyki, and Kanda fit as well.

Both Ishida Yamato and Ichijouji Ken of Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 fall into this category. Their actual looks are never commented upon, but one figures that this is at least partially why they are fangirl bait, both in and out of the show. Also lampshaded in an Audio Drama.

Well, there was that page in the translation of the 02 manga where Daemon calls Ken "the pretty one" (if you're thinking that's too creepy for words, then you're probably still sane).

In one episode of zero two, Gabumon lampshades this by saying "Yamato isn't the only heartthrob here", while Ken was hit on by a very young girl.

To a lesser extent, Takeru, Yamato's little brother, seems to gain some level of bishōnen in him when he turned eleven himself. An episode of Digimon Adventure 02 showed a fair number of girls—Hikari among them—practically swooning over him when he was showing off his basketball skills.

In Digimon Adventure tri., pretty much all of the boys have this aesthetic to them. Yamato/Matt and Takeru/TK (the latter is even shown to have invited a couple of female admirers to the former's concert) seem to be the ones who were drawn this way on purpose, but Taichi/Tai, Koushiro/Izzy and even Joe have also gotten quite pretty as well. Mimi lampshades this in regards to Tai and Matt, mentioning that they've grown to be quite attractive (with Sora blushing in response). Heck, even Tai's teacher is pretty!

Although Eyeshield 21 has a good amount of beefcakes, there's also Kisaragi, Kakei, Mizumachi, Akaba, Sakuraba, Harao, and maybe even Taka.

Zeref from Fairy Tail is revealed to be this after they spend 200 chapters building him up as some great ancient evil. Expecting Someone Taller, or at least older looking, is in full swing here.

Bedivere from Fate/stay night. He looks and sounds so much like a woman in fact that in a series where King Arthur was revealed to actually be a woman in disguise, many fans at first believed him to simply have undergone the same fate. But, no. He's just pretty.

Particularly Momiji, Ritsu, and Ayame. The first wears the girls' school uniform (albeit not with a skirt) because "it looks cuter on him", while the second presents himself as a woman because of an inferiority complex the size of Antarctica. Ayame, on the other hand, is...just special. Akito also qualifies in the anime, although manga Akito is a different story altogether.

The lead, Tohru Honda, remarks that the Sohmas are a family of "princes". And towards the end of the manga's run, even Momiji graduates to pure Bishōnen status with a growth spurt and switch to the boy's uniforms.

Major Alex Armstrong also appears as a sort of parody, both meeting every bishonen archetype yet defying it too. Not only does he meet the quota of sparkling, hairlessness, beauty, deep voice, and vanity, he's also a muscular, oversizedbodybuilder, who constantly flexes and lacks an indoor voice.

At the end of the manga and second anime, Alphonse is revealed to be a gorgeous bishonen. He's arguably even more of one in the movie of the first anime, since he shares his brother's long hair.

Ed's always been Bishōnen, and even has long hair. In the 2003 anime he's more bishonen as his facial features were softened up.

One of Father's transformations turns him into one of these.

In the first anime, Roy actually sparkles during his "Flame vs. Fullmetal" duel with Ed - a trait usually reserved for Armstrong.

Scar in the 2003 anime is younger and more handsome than in the manga.

Ghost Hound: the entire male cast for the most part, especially Tarou, who is downright Moe.

Ghost Hunt: almost all of the male characters. Lin, Naru, Bou-san, even John are bishōnens, pretty boys, handsome, etc, etc...you watch a video of Ghost Hunt on YouTube, scroll through the comments, and you will find a lot of fangirling female users.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, in particular, was full of them. And among the Gundam Wing bishie brigade, Quatre Winner deserves special mention. A slim, platinum-blond Berber. Needless to say, you can find a fairly large amount of fanart of him.

Protagonist Heero Yuy also deserves a mention, since Word of God admitted that his appearance was inspired by a Japanese actress, Yuki Uchida.

Gundam 00, oh ho ho. Apparently, every male under the age of 35 will be absolutely gorgeous in the 24th century, in addition to shrinking their shirts in the dryer to show off their buff figures. Then again, this was pretty well predicted the second they announced that Yun Koga would be designing 00's cast.

Even in the original Mobile Suit Gundam, Char stands out as a pretty boy, notable because the art style of the time rendered almost every other character Gonk. The only character to rival his bishounen-ness is Garma.

Itsuki Koizumi in Haruhi Suzumiya. That is, in a Brigade of crazy people, with a cynical Deadpan Snarker who constantly tells him that no one cares about him. He probably just appears to be one, but he sure seems to make most women blush. As Kyon puts it, 'A face I wouldn't introduce to my girlfriend'.

Hellsing: appearance-wise, Luke is a sophisticated prettyboy. Also, Schrodinger and young Walter. Alucard is the Biseinen version of this trope.

A rare non-human and animal example would be the adult rabbits Rambler and Luna from Happy Happy Clover manga series helps that Rambler is voiced by Takehito Koyasu. There is also one attractive looking teenager boy seen twice in the manga which is the first human Clover encounters and befriends with. However she keeps this a secret.

There is a lot of focus on people's looks in Jyu-Oh-Sei, despite the action being set mostly on a jungle planet with vicious plants and a murderous climate that's used as a prison for criminals. All of the male characters are◊exceptionally◊pretty◊.

Kaguya Hime: many, if not most of the male cast; in particular, Yui and movie star Brett Miller. Nobuo is a very notable aversion.

Kamisama Kiss has quite a few. To start off you have Kurama along with Tomoe and Mizuki

Kamisama Dolls has Aki Kuga, who also has a tendency to get kidnapped by crazy girls.

Akiyoshi of Kawaii Akuma (and its sequels) is often told that he is "cute" or "pretty", and this caused him to develop an inferiority complex. Naruse is also incredibly Bishōnen, to the point of being a Dude Looks Like a Lady.

A good portion of the cast of Kaze to Ki no Uta, but Gilbert and Rosemarine deserve special mention.

Wolfram is very pretty (he looks almost exactly like his mother), a definite bishōnen. In fact, Yuuri's immediate reaction upon seeing him for the first time is simply to stare in awe and call him exactly that.

Aburatsubo from Magic User's Club. He's tall, has long red hair, and is gorgeous...with the requisite legion of fan-girls expected for any bishonen. The only problem for said fangirls is that he's gay and in love with the main character, Takeo.

Mahou Sensei Negima! gives Negi some magic age-up pills, turning him into one of these. He's also a dead ringer for his father, who was also a bishonen. Albireo Imma probably counts too. Teenage Kotaro definitely counts as well.

He is even explicitly stated to be beautiful by a few people. Even Tenma comments on how he has beautiful eyes.

Nearly every male character in Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun to date, aside from Ken and Nozaki himself. Nozaki is a bit overly muscled by normal standards, to his despair (he can't use himself to model for his manga because he's not the right body type). For Ken, he's fat only when Maeno is in his life; at times he's away from Maeno he can fall into this trope as he becomes a lot skinnier.

Kouichi Hayama, from Moonlight Lady, falls into this description perfectly. Lampshaded with Io Azuma, his wife-to-be's cousin; Suzuna was hoping that Io would grow to be this (partially because of an Arranged Marriage to him). Ultimately averted, as Io grew to be a limp-wristed, wide-eyed, Ambiguously Gay "pretty boy".

Lint, Ricalna and even Zelik when we was younger from Mother Keeper all fit this.

Depending on who you ask, a good number of the male cast in Naruto could qualify as Bishonen. Notable examples include Haku (to Dude Looks Like a Lady levels), Benten (Filler Villain to Dude Looks Like a Lady levels), Sasuke, Itachi, Kakashi, Deidara, Sasori, Neji, Suigetsu, Kimimaro, Orochimaru (when he is not doing something gross), Kabuto, Sai, Gaara, Shikamaru, Kiba, Utakata, and the titular character himself. Naruto definitely counts, considering that he has his mom's AND his his dad's looks, though this trope is mostly appropriate only after the time skip. Also, the Fourth Hokage, aka Naruto's dad. Naruto and his peers' kids are quite good looking too.

Nozomu and Dewey from Nurse Angel Ririka SOS both count. Nozomu is taller and more attractive than the boyish, "normal" looking Seiya and Dewey has long hair and soft features. Nozomu's bishonen looks get lampshaded when a jealous Seiya calls him "slightly effeminate".

Sanji recently has been beating people pretty. His first victim, a hideous Wanze, was rapidly kicked across the face until he became (to his horror) this trope. Later, Sanji, fighting his bounty poster look-alike, does this again, much to his foe's joy.

Played for Laughs in Boa Hancock's romantic fantasies about the normal looking main character Luffy - she sees him as typical Bishonen with a full Bishie Sparkle and brown eyes, as well as speaking with a more mature voice than he actually speaks with.

The series now has its first definitive Bishonen. His name is Cavendish. Not only does he have the Bishie Sparkle, he also has large, glinting eyes, a trait commonly used only for female characters. His glinting eyes pretty much drive the point home, because the eyes of male characters in this series rarely glint, if at all.

Otomen: the main male characters, especially Asuka, Juta, and Tonomine, whose looks are often commented on. Even Kurokawa can count, if his eyes showed up a lot more.

Many characters of MÄR, on both sides of the good/evil divide. Alvis and Nanashi are this, combined with the headband of eyecovering. Every once-in-a-while, they even comment on it in-universe.

Basically, all male characters from Ouran High School Host Club, and one of the females. Tamaki (see picture) slightly subverts the usual cool-headed bishie stereotype by being a blithering (but lovable) idiot, and manages to be the male lead and comic relief both at once.

Harry from Outlaw Star. He even ties his hair with a big, pretty bow. Fred Luo, too.

Most other young-ish male characters also count, like Oz, Elliot and Leo. And the latter even more so after an Important Haircut.

A notable example is Liam; the fact that no male or female pronouns were ever used to refer to him for some time didn't help. They fixed this in the anime, however, giving him less feminine features and a decidedly male voice.

All of the main characters in Princess Princess. Yuujirou, Mikoto, and Tooru being bishies is basically the whole point of the anime. They're princesses because they're bishies.

Mytho in Princess Tutu has eyelashes thicker than his girlfriend's. Femio is also an over-the-top parody of this type. Ironic in that Vic Mignogna plays an only slightly toned-down version of Femio in Ouran High. Even better there because, no matter how cheesy he is, the girls there actually fall for it.

The titular Yakumo from Psychic Detective Yakumo fits this trope to a T. Haruka even thinks he's a "beautiful person" when she first meets him. Also, a good amount of male college students who pop up.

Many of the characters from Rurouni Kenshin, especially the titular character, Mr. Pretty Boy Swordsman himself. Depending on the quality of the animation in an episode of the anime, particularly in the later episodes of the series, and you know, just about all the time in the manga, Kenshin is very pretty despite the fact that he's a terrifyingly powerful swordsman who even the manliest of men are afraid of. It doesn't help that, towards the end of the manga and in most of the official artwork, his hair always looks extremely long and flows like a bunch of ribbons. Just look at these pictures: [1], [2], [3], [4]. I rest my case. And even more so in the Trust & Betrayal and Reflections OVAS. [5] And then, you know, there's Soujiro, Aoshi, Sanosuke, and, heck, even Hiko qualifies, although he's pretty manly. Observe: [6].

The Shitennou in the first season of Sailor Moon, Mamoru Chiba, Ali of the Doom Tree arc, Prince Diamond and Sapphire in Sailor Moon R, the Amazon Trio in Super S, and the Sailor Starlights...sort of. In the manga, even one of the cats qualifies for this with his long haired, midriff exposing human form. The cat in question (Artemis) is even named for a goddess.

Many characters from Samurai Deeper Kyo, including but not limited to Hotaru, Shinrei, Hishigi (technically a Biseinen, as he's physically about 30), and Akira.

Masayoshi of Samurai Flamenco. Fittingly, he works as a model/Teen Idol because he has no other skills besides his good looks.

Kyuzo in Samurai 7 is tall, slender, and androgynously beautiful; his voice, however, is very male. Shichiroji, too, and Katsushiro is close. Then there is when Gorobei, Heihachi, and Rikichi have to make it to Kanna village... in disguise.

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: Nozomu Itoshiki and his brother Mikoto. Also, four of his only known male students: Jun Kudou, Kuniya Kino, Aoyama, and Haga.

Almost every male character in Saiyuki. The four main characters are these, of course, but also Kougaiji, Dokugakuji, Hazel, Koumyu, and Ni Jian-Yi/Ukoku.

Though the artist's style is such all the male characters in The Secret Agreement look pretty good, in-story, Iori is singled out as being an incredible beauty for a man.

Nagihiko Fujisaki takes the Bishie Ribbon in the world of Shugo Chara. When Hinamori first meets Nagihiko, he is actually posing as his female alter ego, Nadeshiko. Why is this boy posing as a girl? The Fujisaki family tradition is for the males to pose as females to learn the ways of Japanese Dancing.

During the series, Nadeshiko tells Amu that 'she' and Nagihiko are twins (the rest of the Guardians know about Nagi & Nade, but Amu Hinamori doesn't). It's not until late in the series that Nagi reveals the truth to Amu.

Nagihiko even has a female Shugo Chara named Temari, which he can Character Transform into Yamato Maihime: [9].

The entire male cast of Simoun. The younger men — who were girls until age 17 — even still have breasts that haven't been reabsorbed yet (especially the hunky chief mechanic Wapourif), and all of them are voiced by female voice actors.

Special A: you'd think a beauty contest was part of the Special A qualifying exam, looking at the male cast. The girls, too, unsurprisingly, since a beauty exam is almost mandatory to be part of most Shoujo casts.

Star Driver's Takuto Tsunashi. "Galactic Bishonen" isn't a nickname; it's his official title as the Chosen One

None of the main cast of Strawberry 100%, but Junpei's rivals definitely qualify:

Okusa, a classic pretty-boy, and Junpei's middle school friend. He attempts to steal Tsukasa away from Junpei via a double date with Yui, although his attempts to charm her go unacknowledged, much to his chagrin.

Higure, the tall, dark, handsome, world-famous pastry chef. His grandmother owns the shop where Tsukasa works. He is the main attraction whenever he returns to work from his travels abroad, and while he has fallen for Tsukasa, he understands that she would rather be with Junpei.

Justified and repeatedly lampshaded in Macross Frontier with Alto Saotome, who is frequently remarked on for his resemblance to a woman (much to his annoyance). He and his father were Kabuki actors who specialised in female performances. A particularly obvious lampshade is his nickname of 'Hime' or 'princess' cause he is just so darn pretty.

Kantarou Ichinomiya from Tactics is a white/very light brown? haired bishie, who is annoying and greedy, but overall a good person. He is so young looking, nobody really knows his age. It is implied that he is much older than he appears. Many other guys in it also qualify.

Barnaby from Tiger & Bunny (regardless of what he is wearing, be it his battle suit with helmet off or his daily attire with glasses on)

Ivan Karelin, Nathan's opinion is final - his face is on par with Barnaby's.

Tokyo Ghoul has characters like these who's looks are commented on in story: Tsukiyama, Kaneki, Ayato, Juzuuya, and Hide. In the sequel there's also Furuta (though he's a evil and terrifying bishie), Urie, Mutsuki, Hige, and initially Kanae before it's revealed Kanae is actually a she named Karen.

Lets not forget the most extreme cases, Kakyou (who, as if it was possible, is even more of a Bishonen here than in X, and Ashura-Ou, who quite a few fans are still convinced is a a woman (though Ashura was technically genderless in RG Veda and actually has no specified gender in this work).

In Tsukigasa, Azuma is none too happy about being treated like a girl because of his looks, particularly because he was raped due to his resemblance to his mother.

Urusei Yatsura. Rei Lum's (former fiance) is a tall, stoic, green-haired space bishōnen who drives men to despair and women to squee. Mendou also qualifies, which is basically his most obvious difference from Ataru.

With the exception of the vampire hunter Toga Yagari, absolutely all the male cast of Vampire Knight are bishōnen.

Canute from Vinland Saga, so Bishonen they needed a girl to be a convincing double.

Dilandau in Vision of Escaflowne(who is later revealed to have been a magically disguised and brainwashed girl). Let's just say that most of the male cast is bishōnen, especially Allen and Van. Just look at the opening, for God's sakes!

Weiß Kreuz gets points for admitting it. Youji calls Omi "bishounen" to his face in one episode, but he ain't the only one.

Both Toboe and Kiba from Wolf's Rain look like Bishōnen most of the time, but are actually wolves in disguise. To go further, numerous viewers have mistaken bothfor girls. Even the mangaka for the manga adaptation originally thought Toboe was a girl.

Other examples

White Phoenix from Qin's Moon, doesn't help that he gets prettier each season due to Art Evolution. It was even lampshaded during a mini-documentary. Zhang Liang and younger Wei Zhuang qualify as well.

Literature

Rael Ommandeer takes on a human form in Spectral Shadows, and the character list describes his looks literally as this.

Lord Krishna, the Hindu deity, is depicted as a bishonen in his adulthood. He is painted as a beautiful 20-year-old with clear dark or blue skin, dressed in distinctive yellow silk, and with a peacock feather attached to his diadem. Despite his bishonen appearance, Krishna is The Ace - a superb intellectual, scholar, strategist, warrior, charioteer and Chick Magnet.

Eclipse Hunter gives us Daren Solaris, who is so pretty that the series' resident Tsundere bishoujo Action Girl goes into a mad rage when she sees that he normally wears glasses that disguise his prettiness, going as far as to tear his glasses off of his face and grind them into dust.LITERALLY.

Most of the cast in ½ Prince falls into this category. The game world requires your character resemble you, but lets people beautify themselves, and a lot of people look very lovely in game. Prince, who is actually a girl in real life and the only person playing an opposite gender in game, ends up being the single most bishie thing in existence. Only a few main characters don't take this route, with Wolf having a more mature look in real life and making himself uglier in the game, Gui turning out to be a bishie in real life and not altering his in game appearance. Nan Gong Zui, who makes himself look like a victim of Testosterone Poisoning in game, also turns out to have a very boyish appearance in the real world.

Rowan in Chronicles Of Magic is known for his handsome, slender features and long blonde hair. Taunted by the soldiers with names like "pretty-boy" and "blondie".

Valli from the Outlander Leander series is continuously described as beautiful. The main character, Leander, could be considered a bishounen as well. He mentions at one point that his dad wasn't sure if he would turn out pretty or handsome.

Ax's human morph in the Animorphs series, due to being made from the DNA of the male and female Animorphs; it also leaves him with a mix of racial features making him difficult to place when he's in human morph.

The boys in Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note's starting cast◊ are good-looking, but not this trope. But the characters added later mostly falls in this trope, in this cover◊ we have Sunahara (lower right) and Mikado (upper left)—and the latter is officially recognized as "beautiful." The males spinoff series Genie Team G Jiken Note's starting cast◊ mostly falls into this trope.

Since the vast majority of the characters in ½ Prince are made in a video game they're all gorgeous (as players often make their characters so). The titular character is noted for being the most good-looking character, since they turned the pretty effect as high as it could possibly go.

Let Dai: Jaehee is explicitly stated in-series to be very literally a "pretty boy", and the artwork makes that abundantly clear. It's one of the reasons that so many girls tend to go after him.

Woojae from One has the nickname "Prince Charming" due to his good looks.

Id from Id is the very definition of this trope. Men and women alike fawn over his beauty. Though more often than not, every person he's met has initially thought him a woman.

This is a nearly omnipresent trope in Chinese Wuxia adaptations. If the character is 1. A main or recurring supporting character. 2. Under 25, they're probably this.

Music

Gackt is a living breathing example of this. Even he admits it. In nine* nine, Gackt is shown some pictures of himself when he was younger, to which he responds, "I was a total bishonen back then...But now I'm a biseinen." The difference being that bishonen technicality applies to only boys in their teens but biseinen applies to adults.

Though most members of the kpop group NU'EST could qualify(excluding Baekho), Ren is the most obvious example, bordering on Dude Looks Like a Lady with his big eyes and long hair.

SHINee as a group can be described as this just after their debut when they decided to make a mini-drama looking like girls.

Final Fantasy series: any of the main male characters, at least once graphics became advanced enough to portray it; the official character art shows that the older ones actually were this, too, when not depicted with blocky, low-resolution sprites. Specifically:

Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth. In the original cut of the scene with Sephiroth frozen in crystalized Mako, he was to have feminine curves to allude back to Jenova. Things were scaled back there for the same reason Squall in VIII was made to look more masculine.

Cloud Strife was handsome originally but still clearly a dude but his redesign in Advent Children however◊ oh dear, thankfully the Remake mans him◊ up again.

Dust: An Elysian TailDust himself very much qualifies, once he removes his hat. Justified, since in his previous life, from which he was rather hastily reincarnated, he was the twin brother of Ginger, who is rather pretty.

And let's not forget our magenta-clad prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. He's so pretty that about five girls (and Oldbag) during the series get crushes on him... not thathe notices.

Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2. He was designed as an androgynous alluring blank slate for the player to project themselves onto since unfortunately Japanese fans wanted a pretty boy to play as. There's a scene where another character makes a grab for his groin, and is surprised to find he is male. And you have to play as him naked. No, we are not making that up. He was widely reviled for this by the Fan Dumb, among other reasons.

Leon Kennedy of the Resident Evil series makes the cut, but barely. Even at his prettiest he was still quite solidly built and masculine, and his face becomes a little more chiseled and tough-looking in each new appearance. His haircut, though, remains top-shelf bishonen.

Magna Carta: Tears of Blood kicks the Bishonen up to 11, making its main lead, Calintz, and his apprentice, Azel, almost entirely unrecognizable as male. Chris Arcway manages to dodge the bullet with his open button-up shirt and cocky womanizing attitude, but even Raul, the tall, masculine, goateed swordsman who appears a few times in the game, gets a touch of Bishie thanks to the artstyle (no matter how impossible it seems to be Bishie with a goatee).

Ramirez from Skies of Arcadia seems to rock the "pretty but misunderstood" vibe as hard as he possibly can. Enrique is pretty much his good counterpart. A number of recruitable crew members further the bishounen appeal, particularly Lawrence and Ilchymis.

Although having more of a fairly (and by that, we mean in the smallest margin, as the game models differ slightly from the official art) masculine face than some other Tales Series Bishonen, Richard from Tales of Graces certainly fits the role, having traditional elements including medium-length blond hair, fancy frilly clothes, and immense popularity throughout the kingdom (in one skit, he mentions his "dilemma" with the sale of Richard-themed items). His seiyuu is even the same as a certain other Bishonen of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and he even sports ZelosWilder's costume as DLC. Doesn't help that his younger self can be seriously mistaken for a girl.

Zelos from Tales of Symphonia. Yggdrasil, too. Some fans would argue that Kratos is one as well. The game is ripe with bishies. Kratos is a good example of a biseinen, or 'beautiful man' - what a bishounen becomes when he grows up.

Several of the guys in Tales of Vesperia: particularly Yuri, who can be mistaken for a woman until he opens his mouth.

In a less obvious manner, the main character (or Minato) may also qualify, having a very slender figure, subtle facial features, and pretty eyes. He's also frequently described as a "pretty boy" or "handsome", to the point where a certain Corrupt Corporate Executive tried to exploit him.

From Persona 2: Innocent Sin, we have Jun, a character so pretty that many female characters look upon him in envy.

Goro Akechi from Persona 5 is definitely this. His Thief outfit is even that of a prince's.

It was an old joke in the fandom that those not familiar with the Mega Man X series would think that Zero was actually a girl, thanks to his Rapunzel Hair and what fans like to call the Booblights. This was even lampshaded by Bass of the original series, when, upon seeing Zero's blueprints, scoffs at Zero's appearance, thinking that he was "too girly" to be the strongest robot, like Dr. Wily, Zero's creator, claimed. And he seems to be quite a Chick Magnet, too; for both fellow Reploids and one human. What was Dr. Wily thinking when he created Zero and came up with that design, anyway? So much for being a threat to civilization...

Word of God has it that Zero original concept WAS that of being a female robot. The booblights are probably remnants of this concept.

Jamie from Harvest Moon: Magical Melody is a bishonen or a bifauxnen depending on what gender you play as. If you play as Amanda, he is your grumpy rival farmer and a secret bachelor though the game ends if you marry him.

Similarly, many of the young males in the spinoff series Rune Factory are bishonen. The newest protagonist barely looks male, which, what with the Hello, [Insert Name Here] nature of the game, can lead to some unintentionally hilarious moments:

Lucius, the amazingly feminine featured pretty boy monk with long blond hair. Of course, he defends the fact that he is male when confronted by Serra.

A typical Fire Emblem game will have several bishonen, at least a couple of rugged manly men, a few good looking grandpas, and a Gonk or two. Few are as bafflingly pretty as Lucius, though.

When Super Smash Bros. first showed off Marth, most western players were initially quite confused as to whether Marth was a girl or not (hairband and name didn't help) . His voice actor cleared this up a bit, though.

Taichi in CROSS†CHANNEL has a rather androgynous but attractive appearance. He, on the other hand, is convinced he is horribly ugly for reasons that are never really revealed.

Pretty much any guy from the NeoRomance series (Angelique, Harukanaru Toki no Naka de, Kin'iro no Corda). Eisen of Haruka proved to be pretty enough to disguise himself as a girl on one occasion; even the Emperor is bishounen, though he has the excuse of being Eisen's half-brother. In the La Corda d'Oro anime, one character (Kenichi Shimizu) actually gets called a bishounen by the lead girl when she first meets him.

Among the attractive male characters in Infinite Space, a few of them fall into bishonen/biseinen category. Lord Roth is arguably the best example, with his waist-length lavender hair and feminine face. Main character Yuri is quite pretty himself.

Bishonen characters in other games include Falkner, Bugsy, Morty, Will, Wallace, Steven, Roark, Volkner, Riley, Aaron, Lucian, and Marlon. Maxie may count as well, even though he's older than the others.

The male player characters have been trending toward this. Calem, the male player character for X and Y, is probably the most blatant example - especially when compared to Red's original game design. Or for previous gens, compare the remake design of Red to his to original one.

WarioWare has Young Cricket, who is popular among Japanese female players for being the only bishōnen in the series.

Dragon Quest has two bishonen: Psaro the Manslayer (Human form) and Angelo.

Castlevania. Alucard is one of the quintessential examples. Mistaking him for a girl is not likely to be a problem, though, given the loving attention put into his sprite and the fact that his VA has a very, very deep voice. Several other protagonists in later Castlevania titles, such as Juste Belmont and Soma Cruz, are this as well.

Yuuto is the only male in Eien no Aselia that could really be described as pretty. On the other hand, he's also pretty muscular by the end, so despite the face, he isn't exactly girly.

Vega, the Spanish ninja. It's even part of his character. Vega is a narcissist who believes his face to be extremely beautiful, and cannot stand the ugly. Part of it comes from traumatization as a child when his ugly father killed his beautiful mother. He also wears a mask, not to hide his identity, but to prevent his face from being scarred. Remy in Street Fighter III is even more of one (though he's not narcissistic like Vega).

In the Alpha series, Ken becomes one of these, with long, flowing hair in a ponytail and a younger face (some pieces of art◊ for the game even show him with pronounced lips, a rarity for Street Fighter characters). However, the other games show him looking older and more muscular, with Perma-Stubble.

The Suikoden series of games have, quite literally, dozens of bishonen among the ranks of the Stars of Destiny (108 per game!). Notable ones include and are not limited to: every main protagonist, Flik, Luc and Sasarai, and Yuber.

Sergei from Asura's Wrath. Yasha is to an extent too, though not quite as much.

Many of the characters of Eternal Sonata are well-noted for this, including the game's main character Frederic Chopin and the main on-screen avatar character, Allegretto.

In Bayonetta 2, the Masked Lumen is one under his mask, with sharp, almost elven features and flowing, waist-length platinum-blonde hair. The impressive thing is you can tell he's one when just a sliver of his mask gets knocked off, revealing only one of his eyes and the general shape of his features around it.

In the Japanese Super Smash Bros. games, characters of this nature (e.g. Pit, Shulk, Cloud) tend to have all-female crowd cheers.

Odin Sphere gives us this in the form of Prince Cornelius of Titania, the Shadow Knight Oswald, and Prince Ingway of Valentine. All three young men's physical features ( well, in Cornelius and Ingway's human forms, anyway) fit the archetypes of handsome princes and brave knights with slender yet muscular builds. In Ingway's case, his outfit even runs into Mr. Fanservice territory.

The Japanese iPhone/Android game うまのプリンスさま or "Princely Horse" is a Dating Sim about a young woman named Umako meeting the handsome Yuuma on a ranch. Seems like a normal enough game until you learn that Yuuma is a horse with a human head and the game still plays with some Dating Sim tropes despite it's weird love interest.

Fate/stay night features Gilgamesh, the ancient King of Mesopotania, who´s apparently a tall, white, red-eyed blonde who´s commented on by one of the main heroines as "he looked like a model". It seems that A+ Charisma skill is justified. Too bad he´s a giant douche with an ego the size of the Universe until Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, where he drinks a potion of youth and becomes an adorable well-mannered kid who wouldn´t hurt anyone. His child version is of course equally Bishonen.

Hatoful Boyfriend is the dating sim where almost all of the love interests are pigeons. The exceptions are a quail and a partridge. There is the option to see a pseudohuman alternate appearance at the introduction of each one, and these are all quite bishie even when that doesn't really fit the bird or the character (the middle-aged "fat bird" or "fluffy heretic" is just as svelte and pretty as the ones represented as teenaged boys). The only exception is Okosan, who's only portrayed as a bird in a school uniform.

Higurashi: When They Cry's Keiichi is noticeably pretty, and even sparkles a couple of times, as well as Satoshi, who is a more extreme example than Keiichi and is even voiced by a female.

Kyousuke from Little Busters!!. Mio outright calls him a bishounen one time. And in the Mask the Saito OVA, at one point he dramatically tears off his mask at sunset and sparkles fly as his hair shakes. (The sparkles being his tears from when he was crying because he was so touched a moment before, but still...)

Umineko: When They Cry has the absolutely adorable Kanon, not to mention Battler. George was made to be this in the anime and the Updated Re-release for the Playstation 3, but in the original sound novels he's rather plain in comparison to Kanon and Battler.

In Girl Genius, the artist Phil Foglio made a drawing of a "bishie jäger" in jest to his wife and co-writer Kaja. At her insistence, it was developed into the purple Long-Haired Pretty Boy we know now as Maxim. Despite being a pretty boy, he's still a Jägermonster in every sense of the state.

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